


Legend of the Horse King

by ereshai



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Original Work
Genre: Folklore, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-11
Updated: 2013-04-07
Packaged: 2017-11-28 23:46:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/680233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ereshai/pseuds/ereshai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An abbreviated history of the Horse King, focusing on his death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Death of the King

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the D&D campaign my husband is currently running.

It was a time of great strife for the peoples of the valley. War and death ruled the land, bending the backs of the innocent under their yoke, until our King, the Horse Lord, the Just, the Powerful, and the Wise, rode out of the Highlands and conquered those who had conquered the land.

 

Under his rule, the valley prospered, and our enemies broke themselves against his might. In the fullness of time, he took a wife, a beautiful girl of the Old Lands. Many a tale has been told of their courtship and our King’s quest to win her heart and her hand. Upon the strength and depth of their love, they built their family. Seven children had they; five daughters, proud and beauteous as their mother, and two sons, fierce and noble as their father.

 

It came to pass that a sickness laid waste to the land. Even our King’s mighty strength could not defeat this foe. One by one, the children of the People died. None were safe, not even our beloved Princes and Princesses. When the plague could claim no more small victims, it turned on the strong, felling them like mighty oaks in a tempest, our King among them.

 

With the life of her beloved went the heart of the Queen. Fueled by her grief, she commanded the destruction by fire of all who were taken by the sickness, leaving only her husband and children untouched by the cleansing flame. The ashes of the dead were mixed with the ceremonial paint that decorated the royal tombs, and pressed into the clay that formed the honor guard who accompanied the royal family to the afterlife. The preparations moved apace, and our Queen felt her grief anew with every passing day. She prepared her children for burial with her own hands, and commissioned a death crown for her King.

 

To certain members of the household, the Queen gave special tasks to be carried out in her name. Of the others, she asked only, “Will you follow?”, and all told her yes, out of love and their own mourning. On the day the King was sealed in his tomb, the Queen went in to her bedchamber and drank a special death draught she had prepared. The rest of her household followed her into death, leaving behind only those chosen few to send them properly into the afterlife.

 

With the final burial of the royal family, the surviving People left the valley to await the day when the King and Queen would return and bring life and prosperity once more.


	2. The Priest's Tale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Found written inside the Horse King's tomb.

Listen well, O Men, and know the evil that brought us low.

*

The she-serpent came with her magic and wiles

And clouded the minds of the King and his court.

The Old Ones lived on in her

Awaiting the day of their resurrection.

*

Cursed be she, this queen of the damned.

In the fullness of time, she laid waste to the land.

Her sickness spread, a plague of death,

But her hunger was never satisfied.

*

My brother priests and I called to the Hawk

We called to the Horse

We called to the Hound

They did not deem us worthy.

*

She fed on the lives of children

Even those of her own blood.

When the weak had perished

She turned on the strong.

*

She took their strength into herself

And still wanted more.

In her greed, she went too far.

The King succumbed to her evil.

*

All her stolen strength could not save him.

Without our King, she would be no Queen.

She turned to the Brotherhood for aid.

All cursed her name, but for me.

*

I had a deeper purpose.

I would learn her magics

And I would break the curse.

I would save our King.

*

She hid her magics from me.

She played at faith and devotion.

She called on the spirits as if they were her servants.

They would not answer one such as her.

*

Her false piety angered the spirits.

And our sin in letting her live was too great.

The punishment was severe.

Our King died.

*

With his death, the plague ended.

But I could not let his sacrifice stand.

She whispered to me of resurrection.

And I, laid low with grief, listened.

*

The price of his life was death.

We fed the living and the dead to the flames.

We decorated our King’s tomb

With blood and ashes.

*

We formed his honor guard-

A travesty of clay and ashes and magic.

We deepened the offense

And buried them according to tradition.

*

The worst horror was yet to come.

With her own hand, she cut out

The hearts of her seven dead children,

Condemning them to eternal unrest.

*

She fed their hearts to the flames

That forged our King’s death crown.

She wove arcane enchantments

That would call him from death.

*

I heard the names she called

Devils and demons of old.

There would be no resurrection,

Only terrible unlife.

*

I could not stay her purpose;

I could make no ears hear me.

All were blinded by her magics

And loved her as our true Queen.

*

I took the King’s Sword

I took it to the three sacred groves.

I called the spirits’ blessing upon it

And made the ritual sacrifices.

*

Thus, with thrice-blessed sword,

I begged a further boon.

I asked the Hawk, the Horse

And the Hound to inhabit the weapon.

*

Thus armed, I stole into

The King’s Tomb.

I could feel the curse

Painted into the walls.

*

It weighed upon me like a stone

And I fell into an unnatural slumber.

I awoke in my hiding place

To find myself buried with my King.

*

This is my punishment and my reward.

To end my days at my King’s side.

The curse unended.

The she-serpent triumphant.

*

One will come to break the curse

I have hidden the Sword

Among the treasures of this tomb.

The worthy Hero will find it.

 


End file.
